Former Obama, Bush Officials: Iran Deal ‘May Fall Short’ of a Good Agreement

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Former officials of the Obama and George W. Bush administrations believe the Iran deal will fall short of a good agreement. Photo: Wikipedia.

JNS.org – Ahead of the June 30 deadline for a final nuclear deal with Iran, former senior members of the Obama and George W. Bush administrations who had previously worked closely on the Iranian issue wrote in a June 24 open letter to President Barack Obama that the emerging deal “may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement.”

These U.S. officials include Dennis Ross, who served as a special assistant to Obama overseeing Iran policy; David Petraeus, who headed the CIA and directed covert operations against Iran; Stephen Hadley, former Bush national security advisor; and Robert Einhorn, a non-proliferation expert who advised Obama on Iranian sanctions; and others.

According to the former U.S. officials, several key components must be part of any final deal, including: monitoring and verification of all nuclear sites, including military ones; strict limits on advanced nuclear centrifuges; the lifting of sanctions only after compliance; and serious consequences for violations of the agreement by Iran.

Additionally, the former officials said the U.S. should also “bolster any agreement by doing more in the region to check Iran and support our traditional friends and allies,” by expanding U.S. engagement in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen as well as reaffirming “U.S. policy to oppose Iran’s efforts to subvert local governments and project its power at the expense of our friends and allies.”